15 years ago I had a spooky thing happen to me.

Around this time I was generally listening to Prince more than any other artist. I always carried at least three or four Prince cassettes on me at all times (for my walkman). Unfortunately I managed to lose my beloved Sign O' the Times cassette, probably on a bus or the street. Living in London, the chances of finding it again were near impossible.

Eventually I gave up looking for it, accepted it was gone forever and went out and bought a replacement.

The copy that I had lost had a slight flaw. Part way through the song 'Hot Thing' there was an odd skip in the music. Around two seconds of the song were missing, almost like a vinyl record skip.

I should have taken it back to the store for a replacement, as most people would, but I never did. It never really bothered me, and I actually missed it when I listened to the replacement copy, as I had gotten so used to it.

Fast forward a year and a bit... I was in a pizza restaurant with my girlfriend, about 8 miles away from where I lived (and lost my beloved cassette), when I heard Sign O' The Times being played in the background. As a big fan of Prince, I couldn't help listening to the music all the way through the meal (while pretending I was listening to my girlfriend). For some reason, when it got to hot thing, I listened out for that skip in the music. Lo and behold, it skipped. It skipped in exactly the same way as the one that I had lost a year before. It was my lost copy!!

It was so weird that it had turned up where it did, and I had found it again in such strange circumstance. It could have been picked up by any of the thousands of people living around my area, and gone forever, so it felt like a one in a million that I had found it again. It felt great that my copy was now being listened to and enjoyed by everyone who ate at that restaurant, and it seemed in some spooky way that the cassette had found me again and let me know it was still around.

So that's my spooky Prince related story. Does anyone else have one?

Whiskas31 said:

15 years ago I had a spooky thing happen to me.

Around this time I was generally listening to Prince more than any other artist. I always carried at least three or four Prince cassettes on me at all times (for my walkman). Unfortunately I managed to lose my beloved Sign O' the Times cassette, probably on a bus or the street. Living in London, the chances of finding it again were near impossible.

Eventually I gave up looking for it, accepted it was gone forever and went out and bought a replacement.

The copy that I had lost had a slight flaw. Part way through the song 'Hot Thing' there was an odd skip in the music. Around two seconds of the song were missing, almost like a vinyl record skip.

I should have taken it back to the store for a replacement, as most people would, but I never did. It never really bothered me, and I actually missed it when I listened to the replacement copy, as I had gotten so used to it.

Fast forward a year and a bit... I was in a pizza restaurant with my girlfriend, about 8 miles away from where I lived (and lost my beloved cassette), when I heard Sign O' The Times being played in the background. As a big fan of Prince, I couldn't help listening to the music all the way through the meal (while pretending I was listening to my girlfriend). For some reason, when it got to hot thing, I listened out for that skip in the music. Lo and behold, it skipped. It skipped in exactly the same way as the one that I had lost a year before. It was my lost copy!!

It was so weird that it had turned up where it did, and I had found it again in such strange circumstance. It could have been picked up by any of the thousands of people living around my area, and gone forever, so it felt like a one in a million that I had found it again. It felt great that my copy was now being listened to and enjoyed by everyone who ate at that restaurant, and it seemed in some spooky way that the cassette had found me again and let me know it was still around.

So that's my spooky Prince related story. Does anyone else have one?

Cool. Almost as if it came full circle so to speak.

I would have gone table-2-table and made the thief give it back cuz you know someone up in the place stole your tape.

I guess it was just around the corner.

That's what P was really talking about in Graffiti Bridge. Lose one of his tapes, it'll probably show up around the corner. In a pizza joint. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Umm, I don't know how to say this but mine has the same skip. It was a dodgy batch.

But, how was the pizza?

Kind of related story. Back in 1985 I purchased the cassette of ATWIAD. My copy was warped as when America began it had this start stop warped beginning... years later when I upgraded to cd's, my cd had the same warp sound beginning on America!! Im not bullshitting. I took it as a signb..a sign of what I dont know but it's kind of spooky to me.

^ You want me to make you a copy, mine's fine

lust said:

^ You want me to make you a copy, mine's fine

Like the old standard tune.."Ive kind of grown accustomed (to your face) to it.

lust said:

Umm, I don't know how to say this but mine has the same skip. It was a dodgy batch.

But, how was the pizza?

Damn, oh well. Pizza was lovely!

rdhull said:

Kind of related story. Back in 1985 I purchased the cassette of ATWIAD. My copy was warped as when America began it had this start stop warped beginning... years later when I upgraded to cd's, my cd had the same warp sound beginning on America!! Im not bullshitting. I took it as a signb..a sign of what I dont know but it's kind of spooky to me.

haha, you're mocking me. You're hilarious!

Whiskas31 said:

2 funny things:

1. On the way to the last Paisley Park celebration "Xenophobia", from the airport to our motel where we were crashing with many others (some all the way from Europe), I commented that this event tonight had better be good, because I was skipping out on the debute opening weekend of a new Steven Spielberg scifi film "Minority Report" because I am a big Spielberg fan of many of his movies (hence my name on here). Well, lo and behold, on one night Prince stops the concert and leads the entire audience to a nearby movie theater he has rented out to have special multiple screens running "Minority Report" in the am hours of the night. It was approaching dawn when we got out of there.

2. I was joking that Prince was kind of like a Willy Wonka figure with his magical mysterious Paisley Park being his Chocolate Factory for years before "Xenophobia". what should be playing the first morning we walk up to Paisley Park over loudspeakers around the surrounding lot? The "Pure Imagination" song from the movie soundtrack to 1971's "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". I can't remember if it was the orchestration or the actual song sung by Gene Wilder.

Not really spooky... but interesting...

ufoclub said:

2 funny things:

1. On the way to the last Paisley Park celebration "Xenophobia", from the airport to our motel where we were crashing with many others (some all the way from Europe), I commented that this event tonight had better be good, because I was skipping out on the debute opening weekend of a new Steven Spielberg scifi film "Minority Report" because I am a big Spielberg fan of many of his movies (hence my name on here). Well, lo and behold, on one night Prince stops the concert and leads the entire audience to a nearby movie theater he has rented out to have special multiple screens running "Minority Report" in the am hours of the night. It was approaching dawn when we got out of there.

2. I was joking that Prince was kind of like a Willy Wonka figure with his magical mysterious Paisley Park being his Chocolate Factory for years before "Xenophobia". what should be playing the first morning we walk up to Paisley Park over loudspeakers around the surrounding lot? The "Pure Imagination" song from the movie soundtrack to 1971's "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". I can't remember if it was the orchestration or the actual song sung by Gene Wilder.

Not really spooky... but interesting...

I remember that night very well. The AC wasn´t functioning properly and he sort of stopped the concert. I still remember how Ben (p.org´s founder) said "Fuck the concession stands, let´s go and get some good seats!" .

Sheila E. was in the cinema as well.

ufoclub said:

2 funny things:

1. On the way to the last Paisley Park celebration "Xenophobia", from the airport to our motel where we were crashing with many others (some all the way from Europe), I commented that this event tonight had better be good, because I was skipping out on the debute opening weekend of a new Steven Spielberg scifi film "Minority Report" because I am a big Spielberg fan of many of his movies (hence my name on here). Well, lo and behold, on one night Prince stops the concert and leads the entire audience to a nearby movie theater he has rented out to have special multiple screens running "Minority Report" in the am hours of the night. It was approaching dawn when we got out of there.

2. I was joking that Prince was kind of like a Willy Wonka figure with his magical mysterious Paisley Park being his Chocolate Factory for years before "Xenophobia". what should be playing the first morning we walk up to Paisley Park over loudspeakers around the surrounding lot? The "Pure Imagination" song from the movie soundtrack to 1971's "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". I can't remember if it was the orchestration or the actual song sung by Gene Wilder.

Not really spooky... but interesting...

Nice stories, although were you not a little disappointed Prince stopped his concert?

Whiskas31 said:

ufoclub said:

2 funny things:

1. On the way to the last Paisley Park celebration "Xenophobia", from the airport to our motel where we were crashing with many others (some all the way from Europe), I commented that this event tonight had better be good, because I was skipping out on the debute opening weekend of a new Steven Spielberg scifi film "Minority Report" because I am a big Spielberg fan of many of his movies (hence my name on here). Well, lo and behold, on one night Prince stops the concert and leads the entire audience to a nearby movie theater he has rented out to have special multiple screens running "Minority Report" in the am hours of the night. It was approaching dawn when we got out of there.

2. I was joking that Prince was kind of like a Willy Wonka figure with his magical mysterious Paisley Park being his Chocolate Factory for years before "Xenophobia". what should be playing the first morning we walk up to Paisley Park over loudspeakers around the surrounding lot? The "Pure Imagination" song from the movie soundtrack to 1971's "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". I can't remember if it was the orchestration or the actual song sung by Gene Wilder.

Not really spooky... but interesting...

Nice stories, although were you not a little disappointed Prince stopped his concert?

Nah, it was HOT as Jennifer Lopez in Paisley Park that night. Plus, we had a week full of concerts and workshops...who else can say that Prince took them to a movie though??? I swear we got out of the movie at 3-4am....sleepyhead.

no spooky stories to share but...I was there at xenophobia too, and did not believe that Prince was really going to take us to the movies...I had to be practically talked into checking it out. Well, I was wrong! he did indeed rent out the whole theater for all of us to see the movie. I heard he left half way through, not thrilled with the movie. I thought it was pretty good. I met Sheila E in the ladies room that evening....just said hey Sheila, because she was swarmed with people and I just felt like, damn, let the women pee in peace.